GoZips

Some what disappointed by the sparsity of AK-Rowdies at the Western Michigan game.The Rowdies that showed up gave a good account of themselves. At one point in the first half the Rowdies even tricked "AJ", the WMU goalie, into checking for a loose shoelace. They were definitely in his head.Hey, AK-Howdies, you are Zips, not Suckeyes (losers at home to Penn State in American football).The Zips played with all the fizz of four day old can of open beer.Three to go. All on the road makes it a slog to the end.I think, too, that tonight's win makes the Zips 5-0-0 in conference and that makes them the regular seasonchamps wth a game at Hartwick remaining.

Eighteenth ranked Michigan having recently lost to twenty-fourth ranked Michigan State and fifth rankedAkron, both on the road, went on the road again this evening and shocked second ranked Northwestern.This bodes well for the Zips as Northwestern is one of three teams ranked higher than the Zips that stand in the way of the Zips getting a number one seed. Also, Northwestern is ranked number one in the Great Lakes region with Akron ranked second. Wake Forest is entrenched in first place nationally.When the new polls come out next week look for the Zips to be number one in the region and probablymove up to fourth nationally with an outside possibility of climbing up to third.

Blue & Gold, they played like the starters that they are. They looked improved. Looked to me thatthey knew what was expected and played well. They were on the same team along with Nate and Humpty.

man if i would have known that i would have been there booing him myself.Two questions: First off: GZ -- or anyone. Is this Foote guy the same guy who played baseball (catcher) at K-ent and for the Montreal Expos? I'm thinking his name was "Jim". I remember him as the student P.E. teacher at Green JHS about 1972, making us run wind sprints in the gym immediately after lunch. Mine didn't last long!More importantly: Do you see KD running much more backcourt pressure than he has in any year previous? And will that be a necessity to be competitive, given the lack of frontcourt prowess? It sounds like there will be a lot of teams in the MAC similar to us -- excellent backcourts, but as usual, not a team with a post player that could elevate them near the top-25. That will change in exactly one year. Overly lucky Hawai'ian Z.I.P., yes it is the same Mike Foote. He has a shock of unruly blonde hair.You can spot him in a crowd of millions (wish they were piranha).For the first scrimmage the game was picked up at half court. Remember, I only got to see the first 30 minutes. Perhaps Zip Watcher saw some extended floor activity. I may have left too early.Interesting about Zips Live. I would like to have heard KD's comments.Purely from a logistics stand point, it seems the redshirting three of the incoming Freshman bestserves future Zips needs. With a ten man rotation there just are not enough minutes to go around.I stated previously that my early impression is that McClanahan, Sullivan, and Parrish would bethe redshirts. I still think this is going to be correct barring an injury to Humpty or Nik.If McClanahan's shooting skills are that good, he just might be the small forward that the coachesbelieve is needed to make a Final Four run with.Kyle Peterson, the walk on freshman, is also going to be redshirted. Kyle has shown that he is apretty good player. He might figure in future seasons as a floor regular. I like what I see.Heard, too, that Nik, prefers to be called by his full name, Nikola. Here's a tip young man, thatis not going to happen. Nik sounds American and it conjures up visions of Nicky Dials. Hey, Nikola,would you settle for "Nikky"?

Zip Watcher must have been able to see a lot more of the scrimmage than I got to. Work buzzedme and I had to leave around ten AM. To describe the first half an hour in a word ... sloppy.Sounds like a lot of the early rough edges came off as the scrimmage progressed. It is still way tooearly to make judgements about how well each player is doing. I hope to attend the second scrimmageand draw some conclusions.Right now these kids have to learn to play together as a team. KD loves having slick, inter changeableparts. Its a lack of timing issue. The floor speed is way up. The two big guys are just too slow forthe run, run, run we saw this morning. Bardo can hack it, but Swiech will struggle.Parrish might play himself into the rotation. He did not start, but he was the first sub in and he playedwell enough to be noticed. The guard play is excellent for this early in the season.Brett McClanahan is a lot taller than the six-four he is advertised as. A number of the players havegrown. Nate Linhart, Chris McKnight, Nikola Cvetinovic are all six-eight. McClanahan is at least six-six. "Small ball" will still sport a tall front line.I believe some of the Freshmen are playing their tails off to avoid being red shirted. They have grit.One of the referees was Mike Foote. I was tempted to boo him. But, kept my mouth shut. Footewas the official that screwed Nick Dials and the Zips down at Dayton.Elton Alexander was the only media person that I recognized in attendance. In fact, by ten therewas only a handful of people watching the scrimmage.

Those buggers at the Sporting News have the upcoming MAC men's basketball season figured out.Sporting News has the Zips finishing second in the East behind a strong Miami Dead Hawks team.The Golden Felons rate only fourth place in the MAC East. The Falcons of BUGS picked for third. Withthe Ohio Bobcats picked for fifth. That leaves last place in the East to the Buffalo Bulls.In the West the WMU Broncos figure to finish fist. Then EMU, CMU, NIU, TwoLeeDue, and Balless Statedragging on its rear.A really neat aspect to the News view is that they list the MAC as a high major conference.

Let's be honest here. That was the poorest, most anti-Akron biased, officiating we have seen all season.Michigan routinely shoved and pushed without getting calls. They even managed a few push downs andtrips without getting called out. The bias was clear to even a casual observer.I spoke with an older gentleman midway into the first half. He was obviously Indian by birth. He wasalso a rabid Zips fan. He comes from a country that takes its soccer seriously. He mentioned thatin India people would riot at such blatant bad calls and no calls.The penalty kick was a deliberate attempt to help Michigan. The referee was the only person in thestadium that saw any sort of foul. It was an opportunity to control the game's outcome.As for me, I think I saw the officials get on the Michigan bus after the game. <joke >

Interesting question.While I often feel the frustration of JD's questionable judgement, I can see that gradually he is growing as a head coach. In the beginning he was totally overmatched. Now JD is performing about where the expectations were in the beginning. That is, an occasional win over weaker BCS schools, mid level in the MAC.Now its time to move up in the MAC. It is time to begin winning above 5-3 or 4-4. It is time to be aconstant threat to win the division. Thus far, it has not happened.What scares me is the continuation of the 3-3-5 non defense. It can not stop the run. Nor will itstop passing unless the ball is thrown deep. Basically, it a fool's defense. It is hurting the Zips.A quality coach scraps such foolishness quickly.I was always appalled at Lee Owens refusal to utilize a pass rush. He managed to lose a number ofgames by not rushing the passer. Owens, like Brookhart was unwilling to change quarterbacks whenthe whole stadium could see the need. We never would have discovered Charlie Frye had NickySparks not suffered turf toe.In my opinion, if JD goes 1-3 or 0-4 for the remainder of the season, he should be fired. Otherwise,go with JD another season. I do not like firing coaches. Nor do I like under achieving coaches.

Michigan head coach gave kudos to the Zips. He told me that Akron is the best team Michigan hasfaced this season.Heads up for the AK-Rowdies: Michigan goalie says you really got into his head. The constant hornsdrove him crazy.Both the goalie and the head coach praised the home field advantage created by the fan count and the intensity of the AK-Rowdies. Coach said he would love to show a video of the Akron fans backin Michigan.Both were quite complimentary. Let us wish Michigan well against Northwestern on Saturday. A UM win greatly helps the Zips in the seedings.

Last year as I was driving home from work I was listening to the Jim Rome radio program.Rome was interviewing Tommy Izzo (head men's basketball coach at Michigan State). Rome set upa loaded question. "Coach are you willing to play anybody, anywhere, anytime." Izzo responded,"Jim, that is absolutely correct, anybody, anywhere anytime has always been our policy."I called coach Dambrot from my cell phone. I relayed what Izzo said.I later learned from KD that he called Izzo the next morning and asked for a game. Izzo told KD,"Coach, we wont play Akron, here, there or ever. I like my job."

I agree. The kid is squeaky clean. He did his time for the crime, almost a full two weeks of a one yearsentence. It if that is good enough for Laing Kennedy, then it should be good enough for Zips fans.Should prove interesting to see his inter-personal relationship with Chris Singletary. In a press relaeseCant State has announced that there is no truth to the rumor that Cant is changing its name to Thug U.

September, 1992, at home against the then highly rated Toledo Mudhens, er, Sockets.Akron had controlled the game from early on. At one point the Zips lead 20-3. Toledo fought backand tied the score 20-20.Three seconds remaining. Zips with the ball at Toledo 38 yard line. Darryl Alcorn, a great kicker,comes in and attempts a FIFTY-SIX yard field goal. It was good as gold. Zips win 23-20.Marvelous end to a great game.That 56 yard field goal tied the NCAA record for the longest field goal to win a Div.-1 game.

Not giving any player evaluations. It is too soon.If we stay healthy the Zips will finish at or near the top of the division.Team speed makes one's eyeballs click.How about a six-eight point guard? Nik Cvetinovic ran the point for a while. What a size match uphe presents. Nik handles the ball equal well with either hand. He can play the point.Made a prediction to KD about the starting line up. He laughed. Did admit that all five of my picksare among the top seven players.KD told me that Andrew Parrish has a good chance to play this season. Parrish is working hard.First intra-squad scrimmage is this Friday at 8:30 AM. You are welcome to come watch.Saturday, November 1, the team travels to Cincinnati to scrimmage Xavier. The scrimmageis closed to the public per NCAA rules.

Cap'n, thanks for the nice find. It is an excellent article. Too bad there was no add a comment section.

Don't you just love the Zip's men's soccer team? These kids are playing great soccer. They havegelled into one of the five or six best collegiate teams in the country.Here comes the bad part. College soccer is crooked. It is corrupt. Certain high profile coachesand officials of the NCAA consprire annually to rig the playoffs in a manner so as to control theoutcome.We saw it once before a few years back when the Zips who were nationally ranked for half the seasonas the number one team were humiliated with a ninth seed in the tournament. This despite of havingonly one loss. No matter; the rigging was done in a manner to insure that the Zips would runthrough a gauntlet of the best possible opponents. First the Zips faced and destroyed a good WestVirginia team at Akron. Then, due to the seeding a trip to UCONN. Storrs is a place that it is darnhard to win at, ever. Well, the Zips survived with a shoot out win over the Huskies.Finally it was on to Maryland to face the number one seed, pre-determined future National Championteam on their pitch. The Zips lost. To be sure, the Zips were so flaming good that it took a shootout to resolve which team would go to the Final Four. For all intents and purposes, that game, atMaryland, determined who the National Champion would be. Maryland breezed through the Final Four.Well, kids, it is all the same this year, as it was last year. If Wake Forest is the chosen one they will repeat. If not, they, like us will be shafted in the seeding. Wake is in a great position currently.They control their destiny. Still, they were just tied by Duke at home. Duke choked on FloridaAtlantic at home. Yeah, that MAC school, FAU. The same FAU that lost to Akron 7-0.If the Zips are given any seed lower than two seed , well, you'll know that the fix is in. Same goesfor Wake.We need two things to happen. The Zips need to win out including winning the MAC tournament.Secondly, we need Northwestern, Creighton, St. John's to lose to a non ranked team. The onlyhope to geting a one seed is to be solidly in the top three in the rankings.It wont happen. The shaft is waiting. There will once again be that old, lame, excuse ... yourschedule just was not strong enough. Look at the RPI or, XYZ, or Mickey Mouse has his handsin his pocket.

Hot chocolate at the men's soccer game for me.

Excellent post and observations. Ahem, your call on who red shirts matches mine from last Summer.I totally agree on Humpty and Ronnie. It will be exciting to see the dog fight at the two hole. Wordis that "kNees" is really with it. His game, attitude and presence of mind are top shelf.You are right about Brett Mac. If his defense comes up to speed this scoring machine will get lotsof minutes on the floor. Could make for an old fashioned Kevin Mackey "run 'n stun" game. I alwaysdid like Mackey's philosophy about the game. He won with less talent than EMU normally fields.Last thought. Most any other year the three likely headed to red shirt could easily play themselves into the rotation. The future bodes well. With Zeke they are complete.

How about a cut-n-paste of the article for the rest of us?

I agree. The AK-Rowdies really did seem to get into the WSU goalie's head. He seemed to play wayout of the box in first half. Probably to avoid their loud and continuous banter. He dropped back into the box in the second half when the Rowdies were not directly behind him. It might have saved a couple of goals.At least two of the first half goals were scored when a Zip player got between the goal and the goalie.It sure was fun to watch. I think, too, that the very, very, loud response made by the Rowdies onthe Zips first goal of the night completely unnerved the goalie.Z.I.P., while I did not see the Mo State game I do believe that Mo State would have run all overWSU as they played last night. Wright State came into the match with a decent set of credentialscomplete with a hard fought tie against a very good UIC team.Heard from a creditable source that this is Steve Zakuani's last season as a Zip. He will return hometo England to play professional ball. Yes, he is that good to play English professional soccer.

The game winning goal came in the first seven minutes. Scored by Steve Zakuani. The first of hissecond "hat trick" of the year. Neither Steve nor most of the starters saw the pitch in the secondhalf. The Zips led 5-0 at the half.Zakuani who is the nation's leading scorer in college soccer added six more points to his total.

Do not look at who is number 4 in the RPI.A 12 would at least give the Zips home field advantage through the first two rounds.Just remember: This is a young team. They will excel over the next couple of years.I believe they are excelling already. But, I'm a homer.

Evan Bush earns a spot on the National Team of the Week of College Soccer News.Weekly Award

CHINESE SICK LEAVE: 'I NO COME WORK TODAY!!!' Hung Chow calls into work and says, 'Hey, I no come work today, I really sick. Got headache, stomach ache and legs hurt, I no come work.' The boss says, 'You know something, Hung Chow, I really need you today. When I feel like this, I go to my wife and tell her to give me sex. That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that. Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. 'I do what you say and I feel great. I be at work soon........ You got nice house.'

I thought all you division three homies were dead.GP1, I always thought you had vision and a vested interest in the growth and development of the Zips.Your post reads like something straight out of the sixties. Back then, people argued against moving up to the (dare I say it?) MAC. I heard all those whiny short sighted arguments back then. The Zipsmoved and improved. It is time to move up again.I remember the arguments of how poor, little, under funded Akron could not possibly compete withthe likes of Kant, Ohio U, Toledo or gawd forbid the might Miami Redskins. Poor Akron just didnot have the talent to compete against those "big" time schools.A move up benefits not only the university and the community; it also benefits neighboring schools;most particularly the much loved Buckeyes. Akron in the Big East would drain local and near local talent that currently goes out of state (Big Ten). Akron becomes a local area major player thatMAC and other schools can schedule. Kant benefits from no longer competing for talent. The Zipscould even (conceivably) even play football AT Kant.The up side is just too great to pass by. Its all about money. Its all about ambition. Its all aboutpride. Its all about the community. Its all about recognition.Come on, GP1, join the future.

Some additional thoughts slightly related to the topic at hand.When I walked into Dix Stadium last Saturday I was favorably impressed with the renovations. Nice.Then as I had time to evaluate what I was seeing there were a couple of sore points. First and foremost,did any of you notice that part of the renovation was to remove the two end sections of standson the visitor side. Couple this with the lost end zone seating and you have a much smaller stadiumseating capacity.For those who did not attend the game, when Can't State renovated their stadium with a nifty new scoreboardand jumbotron they removed all the end zone seating at the south end. They also removed the seatsections at each end of the visitors stands. This area they populated with students. Worked prettywell when they have an opponent like Akron that is a draw for them. Overall, the seating capacityof Dix dropped by several thousand.Akron has grown its tailgating to the quality and size of larger schools. The strict control over beerat Can't seemed to be a play by the school to garner maximum profits from beer sales. Oh, bythe way, doesn't the MAC prohibit in stadium beer sales?A large and easily accessible tailgating area needs to be included in the new stadium plans. Novalue in regressing.One nice thing about being in the Big East would be the end of frozen nights in November. Well,perhaps not a total end as occasionally the Zips could host a major power on a Thursday nightand be on national TV.